Now with PDF version included! This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use in guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of children towards meeting the Year 4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework. Children love learning from these resources, whilst they are also of great use to teachers, as there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They are also generic enough to ensure that they are appropriate for use with all texts. Activities and games within the booklet include: - Word Boxing - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Show an understanding of words that capture the readers’ interest and imagination' and 'Use a dictionary to check the meanings of words that you have read' - FBI Vocabulary Agent - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Show an understanding of words that capture the readers’ interest and imagination.' - Information Hunter - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: ' Retrieve and record information given from non-fiction texts.' - Storyboarder - to enable students to demonstrate that they can: 'Maintain a positive attitude towards reading by understanding, listening to, and discussing a range of fiction, plays, poems, non-fiction, reference books and text books.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 20 pages in length!) All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included.)

This interesting and engaging double lesson enables students to build their understanding of Sybil and Eric Birling, two of the main characters in ‘An Inspector Calls.’ In particular, students learn about how both characters contribute to the downfall of Eva Smith, and note the variation in their sense of responsibility. This is linked to Priestley’s overall message regarding community and responsibility in Edwardian Britain. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Recall and understand the key features of Sybil and Eric's character profiles; - Link Sybil and Eric to the historical context of the play; - Read and understand the sections of the play in which Sybil and Eric are interviewed by the inspector; - Analyse each of the characters in response to key questions; - Compare the two characters, in terms of: their attitudes to the working classes; their attitudes towards the inspector, and their sense of responsibility for Eva Smith's death; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - A clear and interesting worksheet on interpreting Mrs. Birling's character (with answer sheet); - Extracts from Act 2 and Act 3 of the play for students to read and interpret; - A scaffolded template for students to complete the comparison task; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This lesson enables students to build their knowledge of the content, language, and structure of James Fenton’s modern relationships poem ‘In Paris With You.’ In particular, students learn how word play, colloquial language, rhyme, and poetic structure can influence the mood and tone of a poem. Students learn through a logical and step-by-step learning journey, including: -Understanding the location described in the poem (Paris) and how it is commonly viewed; -Understanding key information about James Fentons' life; -Reading and interpreting the poem; -Understanding the poem, with a particular emphasis upon the content, language, and structural features; -Writing an extended analysis piece based upon how Sheers gets across the narrator's feelings in the poem, through the use of language and structure; -Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; (including hyperlink to a reading of the poem) - Copy of poem; - Structural devices worksheet - Analysis template with in-built success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 9/10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This interesting and engaging lesson enables students to build their knowledge of the content, language, and structure of Carol Ann Duffy’s contemporary relationships poem ‘Before You Were Mine.’ In particular, students learn how the poet’s use of vocabulary, devices, and poetic structure portray the contrasts in the mother’s life between past and present. Students learn through a logical and step-by-step learning journey, including: -Discussing and applying the key messages and meanings in the poem; -Understanding key contextual information about the poet and her life; -Reading and interpreting the poem; -Understanding the poem, with a particular emphasis upon the content, language, and structural features; -Writing an extended analysis piece based upon how Duffy reflects on her mother’s past and the changes that she has made to her life since becoming a mother; -Peer assessing their partners' analysis attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful, engaging and substantial; (including hyperlink to a reading of the poem) - Copy of poem; - 'How has Ma Changed?' comparison worksheet; - Analysis template with in-built success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 9/10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This engaging and detailed resource pack has been designed to make the understanding and use of apostrophes and inverted commas (heaviy emphasised in the new curriculum) easily accessible, engaging and interesting for all children. These resources enable students to develop their skill in using two of the more difficult to master punctuation marks: apostrophes and inverted commas. Students learn through clarifying what the punctuation marks represent, understanding how they add meaning to sentences, and evaluating their use in the writing of others. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Define what apostrophes and inverted commas are; - Learn rules for when they should be used, and how to use them in more complex grammatical situations; - Identify apostrophes and inverted commas being used correctly and incorrectly in writing; - Analyse and evaluate what it is that makes the use of apostrophes and inverted commas more logical and effective in some situations than others; - Write an advice leaflet for other students about how to use these punctuation forms, modelling correct use themselves; -Peer/self-assess learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation; - One clear and interesting worksheet about apostrophes, with answer-sheet; - One clear and interesting worksheet about inverted commas, with answer-sheet; - A template for students to use for the main leaflet task; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This resource booklet contains a wide range of age-appropriate, engaging, and meaningful comprehension activities for use throughout the reading of J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls.' Teachers have found them particularly useful in exam revision, comprehension tasks, or guided reading sessions. They are perfect for aiding the progress of students towards meeting the KS4 expectations within the new National Curriculum framework - this makes the tasks suitable for all examining bodies. Students have found these resources extremely engaging, and for teachers there is explicit information within each task regarding which comprehension strands the task is designed to demonstrate. They also relate to key extracts, characters, and themes from the story, ensuring that students gain a deep understanding of the text. Activities within the booklet include: - 'Context: Pre-War Britain' - to aid students with 'Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation;' - 'Priestley's Description' - to aid students with 'Analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact;' - 'The Inspector' - to aid students with 'Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence;' - 'Editing the Play' - to aid students with 'Making an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.' Plus many, many more activities (the booklet is around 30 pages in length!) I've also added it as a PDF in case the formatting differs on your computer. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on a separate document (included).

I delivered this CPD session to all members of our staff team who maintain regular contact with parents and other stakeholders, in a bid to improve the quality, accuracy, and clarity of our written communications. I'd recommend that the session takes about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes to deliver. We had received some negative feedback comments, regarding our communications, varying from examples of poor grammatical accuracy, to instances in which the tone of emails, letters, and other forms of correspondence were perceived as rude. It is surprising how common this is across schools, and how little training is provided on these forms of interaction. Following this training, we are receiving far fewer complaints, and many staff members now keep the help-sheets pinned up by the desks to refer to when communicating with parents. Participants learn through: - Participating in a fun pub-style quiz to eradicate common spelling, punctuation, and grammar misconceptions and errors; - Considering the role of parents, their needs and interests, and what they expect from their child's school, as a means to understand why schools sometimes receive difficult communications; - Reading and analysing examples of poor written correspondence, considering how both the tone and the accuracy can be improved; - Exploring different language strategies to create a personal, polite tone within emails, by considering the connotations of different words; - Taking away help sheets that can be referred to whenever written communications are being drafted. The resource pack includes: - Colourful and engaging whole-session PowerPoint presentation ; - Examples of written communications for participants to analyse; - Quiz answer sheet; - Accurate Written Communication help-sheet; - Polite Written Communication help-sheet. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide. (Please note that the only section of the PowerPoint that you may wish to modify is with regards to the distinct features of parents at your own school - Aside from this, the resources are good to go!)

These stimulating and varied resources, strategies, and ideas have been designed to aid educators in equipping young people with vital critical thinking skills through the learning of English. In a rapidly changing and ever-more competitive world, it is of the utmost importance that children leave school with the learning skills and mindsets needed to take on wide-ranging challenges and obstacles. Learning to think critically can enable them to become rational, reflective, and resourceful learners, who are able to comprehend information beyond the 'surface' or 'initial' level. These skills of tackling misconceptions and given truths, and critically analysing and evaluating what they are presented with, can also be of vital importance in developing a deep understanding of English concepts. Grounded in education research, the initial section of this pack contains a number of resources that will be of use to CPD leaders, including links to clear explanatory videos and theory. The second section of the resource pack contains strategies, ideas, and resources for teachers looking to build English skills in critical thinking through the key areas of comprehension, SPAG, and vocabulary. All images and videos are licensed for commercial use, and where necessary are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint presentation.

This lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of Ted Hughes’s message and imagery in the war poem ‘Bayonet Charge.’ By the end of the lesson, students demonstrate their knowledge of the text analytically, through assured, appropriate, and sustained interpretations of content, language, and structure. Students learn through a logical and step-by-step learning journey, including: -Understanding the context of the poem and defining the key terminology 'bayonet', 'over the top', 'trenches', and 'no-man's land'; -Understanding key information about the poet Ted Hughes; -Reading and interpreting the poem; -Interpreting the poem, with a particular emphasis upon how Hughes creates visual and auditory imagery; -Finding and analysing the language features used throughout the poem, and considering how these link to the poet's message; -Writing an extended analysis piece based upon how Hughes creates imagery in order to capture the soldier's horrifying final moments; -Peer assessing each other's learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and substantial; - Copy of poem; - Interpretation worksheet (plus an answer sheet for teachers/CAs); - Analysis task template and success criteria for creating well-structured responses; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to middle-ability year 9/10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

These well-designed, easy to use teacher quality trackers allow teaching and learning leaders to monitor the quality of teaching across their departments/ schools over time, focusing on the triangulated performance indicators of: Lesson Observations/Learning Walks, Book/Folder Monitoring, and Pupil Progress. Users can easily view changes in individual, department, key stage, and whole school teaching and learning quality over time. The tool is automatically formatted to colour code entries from the codes 1 (Outstanding = Green) to 4 (Inadequate = Red) Each entry also updates the ‘average school performance’ table, which in turn alters the line graph showing quality over time. This enables leaders to easily identify trends in performance data. Furthermore, there is also space in which users can give details of CPD sessions and interventions, in order to a provide a foundation to evaluate their impact. Individual pages are provided for observations, book monitoring, and pupil progress. ‘3 captures per year’ and ‘6 captures per year’ versions are provided, to allow for schools that measure quality at variable intervals.

In this engaging and informative lesson, students are enabled to make sustained and developed interpretations regarding the introduction and development of the character of Mrs Bennet in ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ In particular, students learn about how her tiresome, ungraceful, single-minded behaviour ironically alienates the very suitors that she hopes to attract for her daughters. The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through: - Establishing the extent to which Mrs Bennet fits the requirements of the ‘Regency mother’; - Reading and understanding how Mrs Bennet is introduced in the novel, using relevant textual evidence; - Tracking how her character develops through the notable events of the novel; - Analysing how Austen introduces and develops Mrs Bennet’s character throughout the novel; - Peer assessing each other’s learning attempts. Included is: - Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive; - Extract from Chapter 1; - ‘Development of Mrs Bennet’ task resources - with teacher answer sheet; - Supportive and clear essay template; - Comprehensive lesson plan. There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. These resources were originally taught to GCSE students, but with subtle adaptations they have also been used with both younger and older (up to A Level) students. All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.

This interesting and highly stimulating lesson enables students to make clear and sustained links between Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and the social and historical context of Italian American immigration in the early to mid-twentieth century. In particular, students engage analytically with Marco and Rodolpho’s arrival at the Carbone household, interpreting their key quotations about life in both Italy and America, and linking these to knowledge of real-life context. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Understand the key features of Italian immigration to America in the early to mid-twentieth century; - Understand the relevance of Arthur Miller’s life and influences upon elements of plot; - Create a timeline detailing contextual information regarding Italian immigration; - Read and understand the middle section of Act One, interpreting quotations which Marco and Rodolpho arrive and offer key information about life in Italy, and their hopes for America; - Understand cultural differences that lead to Eddie’s unease with Rodolpho; - Make clear and sustained links between the text and its social and historical context, by analysing the middle of Act One; -Peer assess each other’s learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation;; - Paper copies and online links to the extract needed for the lesson (mid-section of Act One); - Timeline template; - Linking to context worksheet (including answer sheet for teachers); - A logically scaffolded essay template; - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.

This interesting and highly-stimulating enables students to make clear and sustained inferences regarding the main characters and their relationships in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. In particular, students read between the lines in decoding the subtle cues suggestive of Eddie’s feelings towards Catherine in the opening stages of Act I. The lesson follows a clear, logical, bite-size learning journey, which guides students towards differentiated learning objectives. Over the course of this journey, they become able to: - Understand the key learning skill of inference; -Infer key meanings from short extracts of texts; - Read and understand the opening section of Act I, in which we are introduced to the Carbone family, and infer and interpret the key information provided regarding their relationships; - Demonstrate an understanding of Eddie’s hidden feelings for Catherine, and Beatrice’s knowledge of this; - Write an emotive diary entry from Beatrice’s viewpoint, using evidence from the text to demonstrate an understanding the key meanings from the act; -Peer assess each other’s learning attempts. This resource pack includes: - A visually engaging whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation;; - Paper copies and online links to the extract needed for the lesson (Beginning of Act I); - Inferences worksheet (including answer sheet for teachers); - A detailed lesson plan, complete with what the teacher and students should aim to achieve at each stage of the lesson. All images are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the PowerPoint.